Geography+Scrabble

=Geography Scrabble= Anne Gossett



Instructional Objective
In Geography Scrabble, the players will arrange tiles containing the names of cities and states on a game board. Each played tile will share a geographic connection with the tiles adjacent to it. Geographic connections can include a city and a state, or two cities in the same state, or two cities in connecting states. During the game the players will be reinforcing their familiarity with cities and states throughout the United States.

The game specifically reinforces the US National Geography Standards promoted by the National Council on Geographic Education and the National Geographic Society. Geography Scrabble will emphasize the “places” portion of these standards:


 * **Standard 2:** How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places, and environments.
 * **Standard 3:** How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environments on Earth's surface.

Learners & Context of Use
Geography Scrabble is designed for adult learners who are entering the travel agent field. These new travel agents will be specializing in US travel and need to be familiar with the location of states and cities, both large and small. This game could also be played by anyone who is interested in US geography. It can be played by 2 to 4 players in a classroom/training room setting or in an informal setting with coworkers or friends. Additional sets of the game will need to be prepared if there are more than 4 players. Due to the randomness factor introduced by each player drawing tiles to be played, the game can be played more than once by the same set of players. In a classroom setting, Geography Scrabble would be an excellent review activity after a unit on the travel agencies most popular destinations or a customer service module on “Planning Travel Itineraries”.

Competing Products
A search of the Internet revealed an assortment of card games, board games and puzzles with a geographic theme currently on the market. In many of these games, players locate the positions of states or answer trivia questions to acquire points or earn tokens. The majority of the games focus on American geography and emphasize memorization and shape recognition skills.

Geography Scrabble is similar to the existing games in that it requires memorizing basic facts about geographic locations. In this game, the players will not need to know the exact location of the city within the state, but they will need to identify the state. They will also need to know what states are adjacent to each other.

Geography Scrabble is unique in that the players are able to demonstrate knowledge of more than one location or feature while making a play because they can place as many tiles as possible during their turn. The only caveat is that all the played tiles share a geographic connection to the their adjacent tiles.

**Object of the Game**
The object of the game is to earn as many points as possible during the game.

Content Analysis
Review the details of the Geography Scrabble Content Analysis.

Game Materials
Each Geography Scrabble game will contain the following elements:
 * Game board - [|Geog_Scrabble_Board.zip]
 * 1 Game board layout guide - [|Game_Board_Layout.pdf]
 * Game tiles - [|Geog_Scrabble_Tiles_v3.pdf]
 * 4 Geographic Connection Guidelines cards - [|Geographic_Connection_Guidelines_v2.pdf]
 * 1 die
 * 1 Referee's Connection Checker handout - [|Connection_Checker.pdf]
 * 1 Rules handout - [|Geog_Scrabble_Rules_v2.pdf]
 * Paper for keeping score
 * Timer

Time Required
It will take approximately 5 minutes to setup the game. If this is the first time, Geography Scrabble is being played by some of the participants, then it is a good idea to spend an extra 5 minutes reviewing the rules of the game.

After setup is complete, Geography Scrabble will take 35 to 45 minutes to play. Due to the ease with which the tiles can be accidentally knocked about, it is not recommended that the game be played over multiple periods.

The Rules

 * Setting up the game:**
 * Select the Referee and Scorekeeper. It is recommended that a neutral person who is not a player be selected as the Referee. The Referee or a player can perform the role of Scorekeeper.
 * Decide on how long to play the game, 30 to 45 minutes is recommended.
 * Each player draws 7 tiles from the tile pool for their starting “hand”.
 * Each player gets one Wild Card tile. The Wild Card tile does not count as part of their seven tiles.
 * The Referee draws a tile and places it on the **Start Here** square in the center of the board.
 * Each player throws the die to determine who will start the game. The player with the highest number goes first. Play moves clockwise around the board.


 * Referee Duties:**
 * At the start of the game, draw a tile and place it on the **Start Here** square in the center of the board.
 * Make the final decision on whether played tiles meet the geographic connection guidelines during the game.
 * Monitor the game to watch for situations where every player has made a tile exchange with the tile pool and no one is able to make a play. This is a game ending situation.


 * Scorekeeper Duties:**
 * Tally the score from any played tiles and any Bonus Points at the end of each player’s turn. When a tile is played on a **Bonus Points!** square, the player will throw the die and the individual tile score will be multiplied by the number on the die.
 * Declare the winner at the end of the game.

>> **//OR//**
 * Playing the game:**
 * 1) The first tile laid by a player must be adjacent (to the left, right, above or below) a tile already on the game board.
 * 2) Players can lay multiple tiles on their turn as long as the tiles are adjacent to one another and have a geographic connection. Each tile on the game board must share a geographic connection to every tile adjacent to it.
 * 3) The Referee will make the final decision on whether played tiles meet the geographic connection guidelines.
 * 4) If a player is unable to make any plays with their current tiles, then they have two options.
 * They may play their Wild Card tile. The Wild Card tile can be played as any state or city. The player will announce the city or state that the tile represents as they place it on the board. They may then place additional tiles that share a geographic connection to it. Once on the game board, the Wild Card can be used as any state or city by any of the other players in order to make a play. It does not have to be the originally declared state or city.
 * They may exchange all or some of their tiles with the remaining tile pool on their turn. Their turn will end as soon as the tile exchange is complete and they must wait until their next turn to play tiles or make another exchange. It is not necessary for a player to have used their Wild Card tile before making a tile exchange.
 * 1) At the end of each player’s turn, they will replace any played tiles by drawing replacements from the tile pool and the Scorekeeper will tally the score and add it to the player’s point total.


 * Geographic Connection Guidelines:**
 * A city and its state.
 * Two different cities located in the same state or in touching states.
 * A state and a different state.
 * Hawaii is considered adjacent to California.
 * Alaska is considered adjacent to Washington.
 * Ending the game:**
 * The will end when one of the following situations occurs:
 * The scheduled time for the game ends.
 * All players exchanged tiles with the tile pool on their last turn and no one is able to make a play.
 * The game board is completely filled with tiles.
 * The player with the highest point total will be declared the winner.

Motivational Issues
Geography Scrabble will appeal to participants who are motivated by challenge, curiosity, relevance or competition. Malone and Lepper point out that two aspects of a challenging game is that is has “an explicit goal” (p. 230) and that achieving the goal is not always guaranteed. In this game, the players are given a specific goal of achieving as many points as possible. However, the ability to reach this goal is hampered by the game tiles they randomly draw.

Csikszentmihalyi described similar motivations in his Flow model. He stated that goals, rules and feedback were important in motivating game players. (p.72) In addition to the goal described above, Geography Scrabble also includes prompt feedback in the form of Referee decisions on the validity of the play. Keller and Suzuki also identified feedback as one of the factors that “influence satisfaction” (p. 404), which is the fourth category of the ARCS model. There are also rules included in the game that describe the type of plays that are allowed and how to handle situations where a player is unable to make a move.

Geography Scrabble will also appeal to learners motivated by curiosity as described by Malone and Lepper. Incorrect plays or the inability to see a possible play will make the player “believe that their existing knowledge structures are not well-formed” (Malone and Lepper, p. 236) or are incomplete. They will then desire to correct this situation and learn more about geography.

The ARCS model described another motivation for game players in the form of ends oriented relevance. Keller and Suzuki observed that if the “instruction is perceived to be helpful in accomplishing important goals in the student’s future, then the student is more likely to be motivated.” (p. 404) In order to activate this motivation, Geography Scrabble should be played at the conclusion of a learning unit that features geographic information that the player will need to know in order to successfully complete a task. If necessary, the teacher/trainer can modify the game tiles to focus on locations covered in the class material.

Design Process
Upon learning the details of the board game assignment, I decided to do something related to geography. After considering a bingo format of the game, I discarded that idea as being too simple and somewhat boring because in a classroom setting each student would most likely just sit at their desk to play. Instead I decided to focus on a form of the game that would require more interpersonal activity and chose a Scrabble format. My original plan for Geography Scrabble was to include locations from around the world. The original list of topics for the tiles included cities, countries, rivers, continents and major landmarks.

However, as I began testing the game, my original plan proved unworkable. It was challenging finding the right balance of places and features for each continent that would be recognized by the majority of players. At this point, I decided to focus on just cities, states and tourist destinations in the United States. Then I made a miscalculation in selecting my playtesters. I forgot that most of my playtesters have a geography degree and work in a geography related field. This meant that they had more than the usual amount of geography training that could be expected of a new travel agent. After fine-tuning the game, I found a new group of testers who like to travel, but who do not work in a geography field. I also found the playtesting feedback from my classmate to be very helpful in revising the game further.

After reviewing all the playtesting feedback, I decided to limit the game to only cities and state in the United States. If the game is produced commercially, then an extra set of tiles containing tourist destinations could be purchased as an add-on for an advanced version of the game.

The Internet has been a very helpful resource during the game development. Through the Internet I was able to locate visual representations of the traditional Scrabble game board and tiles and download a version of the rules. A search of the Internet revealed that there were no identical games currently available in the marketplace. It has also been useful in selecting geographic locations to include in the game tiles.